Best Black Friday Apps

These days you need more than just your wallet to hit the stores for Black Friday sales; you also need your phone.

More than half of smart phone owners say they'll use apps to get store locations, check and compare prices, and have a less stressful shopping experience.

You want the best deals, but you also want to get in and out of these crowds as quickly as possible. That's where apps like TGI Black Friday can help. This app lets you view ads, see store hours, create a shopping list and compare prices.

"And also not have to worry about fumbling through store coupons; not having to worry about driving to this place or driving to that place," Brett Carrothers of Verizon Wireless said.

The Shop Savvy app has the deals and another cool feature.

"You can actually scan that bar code and it will pull up the very best price down the street, so it price matches for you," Carrothers said.

Your wallet doesn't have to be as thick either. You can scan all your store loyalty cards in Key Ring and use your smart phone instead.

There's another app called Chameleon that works with participating stores. In Sioux Falls that's Best Buy and Target. If you take it into the store with you and turn it on and you're looking for a certain item, it will take you to that aisle and show you how much is in stock.

That's something Black Friday shopper Brittany Harms could have used last year, after waiting in line for three hours for Target to open for a deal on a TV.

"By the time I got back to the electronics section, they were not back there and I was informed they were all the way up front, so I ended up having to circle around and by the time I got there, they were all gone," Harms said.

When you're done shopping, there's also a Find My Car app.

"When you park your car, you touch on the 'park' so it will actually pinpoint your location," Carrothers said.

"I didn't even know they had apps like that out there. That's very helpful," Harms said.

Shopping for the right app first and keeping your smart phone charged could make this Black Friday the smoothest one yet.